REO Speedwagon's 'Can't Fight This Feeling' Did Not Come Easy

01-03-2024

REO Speedwagon frontman Kevin Cronin shared the story of the long in the making of the band's hit ballas "Can't Fight This Feeling" during an appearance on Dan Rather's Big Interview podcast.

AXS TV sent over the following details: "Can't Fight This Feeling" is easily one of the most beloved singles by REO Speedwagon. But lead singer Kevin Cronin revealed that composing the song was actually a lengthy and difficult endeavor.

"The story of that song, in a nutshell, was that I started it in 1973. I wrote the verses, but I couldn't write the chorus," Cronin said during an interview with Dan Rather. "The verses I was really connected to, and I wrote a number of horrible choruses to these verses. I was like, 'Okay, I'm going to file this and I'm just going to wait.'"

That wait would last 12 long years until a cathartic day inspired Cronin to finish the ballad he began more than a decade earlier.

"I went and got my lyric notebook and I looked at in and the very first lyric of the song is 'I can't fight this feeling any longer,' and I was like, 'That's what this song is about!"

"It was like right there all that time, hiding in clear sight," Cronin proclaimed.

You can listen to insightful music conversations like these on Dan Rather's Big Interview podcast, available on iHeart, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and on additional podcasting platforms.